After finishing "Hope is Home" I've enjoyed some down time with my family and this week I have been busy preparing for the workshop I will be teaching in October at the Winter Garden Art Association.  I don't have a big painting on my easel at the moment but I have been doing some sketching.  I recently got a new plein air watercolor easel for my birthday!  (I love having a husband who is also an artist!)

A few weeks ago we went out with a group of friends and painted locally in Winter Garden.  Since this outing was prior to the easel, I just did my normal set up sketching in my sketchbook with my backpack that converts to a stool.  If you are interested in the equipment I use for watercolor sketching you can visit a previous post here.

I really like doing these long vertical formats and the water tower was a perfect subject. After I had laid everything in pencil and started painting, the car had moved.  I painted it in any way, so it appears a bit wonky to me.  Oh well, it's just a sketch.

Three to four times a month, we have life drawing at the Winter Garden Art Association.  My husband and I try not to miss it.  We have been going for a few months now and I can notice a big improvement in my figure drawing which is not really my strong suit.  Like anything the only way to get better is to practice, practice, practice.  In a way this has become like yoga for me "a practice."

Last night I decided to take my new easel for a test drive, and paint during the 20 minute poses.  I have always drawn and never painted before for the quicker poses as opposed to one long pose for the whole night.  So here is my first attempt.  This one is the better of the three. I hope to get the hang of it to get more information down.  What I learned is this forces you to be quick in your drawing and not futz with it so you have some time to lay some color down.  Now I have a new thing to practice, practice, practice!